You took the leap into ecommerce so you can stay ahead of competitors and watch those sales climb. Your company has a sleek-looking online store with high-quality product images that attract a great deal of website traffic, but only a fraction of those visitors turn into shoppers. Why aren't you seeing more conversions? The answer is not clear-cut.
Whether you're a B2C or a B2B company, there are many factors that could lead to stagnant sales. Turning web traffic into transactions boils down to addressing three common shortcomings: a poor on-site search tool, a confusing path to purchase, or weak content.
Let’s take a closer look at them and discover actionable steps you can take to move the conversions needle in a positive direction:
1. You Don’t Have a Well-Performing On-Site Search Tool
Your site’s search bar has a greater impact on sales than you might realize.
When users land on your website with a clear intention to purchase a specific product, their eyes are automatically drawn to the search icon. An efficient search tool does more than helping visitors find content or products. It also anticipates their needs and suggests highly relevant categories to search within their autocomplete recommendations.
Most online stores are not equipped to customize the on-site experience and return relevant results.
When a person searches “convertible car seat” the results should be the same as “adjustable car seat.” Still, more than 70% of (desktop) ecommerce search implementations are unable to return proper results for product-type synonyms. Another 34% of websites are “penalizing” users who look up numbers or misspell words by displaying a “no results found” message. Their conversions are plummeting and so is the return on investment (ROI).
Having an efficient on-site search tool is more important for B2B companies that manage high product volumes, categorized by measurement.
No matter your business model, you can boost conversions by using a superior search tool. Hawksearch, for instance, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to fine-tune and personalize relevancy results even when visitors use alternative language. Implement a strong on-site search tool that can sell for you.
2. Your Path to Purchase is Too Complicated
- Presenting clear details that help customers decide and complete the transaction (pricing, terms, warranty, return policy, etc.)
- Having call-to-action (CTA) buttons that are easy to locate on every page.
- Eliminating unnecessary forms and simplifying the existing ones.
- Providing a limited number of options. Studies show that for B2B companies who offer a cloud-based software solution, three is the ideal number of purchase options.
- Identifying and correcting “leakage points” or stages of the journey where prospects are leaving the sales pipeline. This can be someone who bounces from a landing page before filling out a form.
- Offering educational content. This practice was shown to make consumers 131% more likely to buy.
3. You Don’t Have Unique, SEO-Optimized Content
From email marketing promotions to blogs, white papers, and social media posts, content is what wins buyers over. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your online content so that it ranks on Google’s first page.
If your ecommerce platform doesn’t convert, it might mean that your content is not SEO-friendly. Maybe you’ve been posting some blogs, but they are lacking key elements that get users to notice your content and stick around long enough to buy something.
- You’re using a keyword strategy that matches users’ search intent. If people click on your content but don’t find the information they were hoping for, you’ll instantly lose them.
- You have engaging headlines and CTAs encouraging visitors to take further action.
- Your copy uses bullet points and subheaders which makes it easier to scan.
- You use jargon-free, simple language anyone can understand.
Content that converts doesn’t directly sell. Instead, it educates visitors about the importance of your products, which in turn, builds trust and leads to increased purchases. According to Dragon Search Marketing, 61% of consumers say that they are more likely to buy from a company that provides custom content. When you’re busy running an operation, however, content production (and optimization) take a backseat.
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